


Different Rules of Behavior [November 23, 2025]

by patchfire, raving_liberal



Series: Story of Three Boys [126]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 06:13:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchfire/pseuds/patchfire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Burt finally asks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Different Rules of Behavior [November 23, 2025]

“You wanna grab a beer and talk a little, just you and me?” Burt asks. He looks like he often does when he wants to have a serious talk, Kurt can’t help but think – like he’s trying very hard not to look serious, but failing miserably. 

“Sure,” Kurt nods after a moment. “One moment.” He walks over to Noah and on the pretext of hugging him, whispers into his ear. “I have a feeling you and I should talk before we talk to Finn, after this.” 

Noah nods almost imperceptibly, returning the embrace and then stepping away. “Good night, everyone. Sleep well.” He nods again at Kurt before he and Finn head upstairs. 

Kurt grabs two bottles out of the refrigerator and opens them before sliding one to Burt, leaning against the island. He has a feeling he knows what this is about, but he’s not going to volunteer the information. Even now, even at thirty-two, and doesn’t that make him feel like a child again?

“The kids all seem like they’re doing really well,” Burt begins. “The girls are doing a lot better than I would have expected.”

Kurt smiles. “They are. It’s almost time to find a preschool for the little two. Eliza’s was nice enough but a little far.” He shakes his head. “And they are _so_ excited Aunt Audrey’s here.”

“I thought we were gonna have to pry Charlie off Audrey’s leg with a shoehorn,” Burt says. “Not that Harvey’s much better about that. You’d think he and Charlie were the siblings, the way they act.”

“The Peas,” Kurt nods, laughing. “I almost feel sorry for their eventual preschool teacher.”

“I’m glad they get along so well, though. No resentment or anything about sharing the attention?”

“There’s three of us,” Kurt says philosophically, “and three of them. Finn keeps saying we didn’t have to move from man to man to zone defense?” Kurt shrugs. “Anyway, it’s normal for the Peas.”

“Mmhmm,” Burt says, taking another long sip of his beer. “There are three of you here.”

“Yes.”

“So, Kurt…” Burt pauses. “Look, you know I try to stay out of your business. I’m just a little… well, Carole noticed some, uh, interesting… What I’m trying to ask is…” Burt makes some sort of hand gesture like he’s encouraging Kurt to fill in the blanks for him. Carole had definitely noticed something, judging by the way she announced she was going to bed as soon as dinner was over, her face stiff and disapproving. 

“Finn,” Kurt nods. No doubt Carole had focused on Finn to the exclusion of all else. “And, well. Yes.”

“Yes, what she noticed?”

“This is home. Different rules of behavior.” Kurt traces his finger absently on the counter and takes a drink of his beer and smiles slightly. “Finn’s the one most likely to forget we have guests.”

“So this… this is actually a _thing_ between you?” Burt asks. 

“The three of us, yes,” Kurt nods. “No, Finn’s bedroom isn’t merely for show. Yes, the three of us. It’s…” Kurt shrugs. “Noah and I always have thought that most couples don’t feel equally strongly about someone outside the couple.” Which is true; they don’t think in terms of couples most of the time, though, not anymore. 

“Kurt, I’m, you know I’m trying to make sense of this,” Burt says, his features twisting into a combination of confusion and worry and something else. “But, what you’re saying. That’s… it’s just not _normal_ , Kurt.”

Kurt can feel his face harden a little. “It’s not exactly like we go around advertising it, Dad.”

“I don’t really care who you’re advertising it to, Kurt. He’s your _stepbrother_ and you’re _married_. You’ve got a kid. _He_ has kids!”

“I’m well aware of all of those facts,” Kurt says coolly. “Though we tend to think of the kids as ours.”

“Is this what happened to Finn’s marriage? Was it because of this?”

Kurt draws in his breath sharply and his hand tightens on his bottle of beer. “ _Rachel_ happened to Finn’s marriage. You know, until Charlie was born, Finn wasn’t sure she was biologically his? Not that it mattered, she was his, either way, but.” It seems like an opportune moment to take a drink of his beer, actually, so he does, closing his eyes as he drinks. 

“No, I didn’t know that, but… Kurt, how long has this been going on?” Burt frowns. 

Kurt sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “It’s not been contiguous. Obviously. But.”

“Kurt.”

“Thirteen years.”

“ _Christ!_ Kurt, you’re telling me this has been going on since college? Since Audrey was born?”

Kurt frowns, then figures he’s told the truth so far, what’s the full truth? “No, not since college,” Kurt says quietly. 

“Thirteen years sounds like college, Kurt, unless you’re screwing up your math,” Burt says. 

“You could argue it’s closer to fourteen.”

Burt freezes, then his face slowly contorts as he starts to work out the mental math, and then he blanches. “Kurt, are you telling me this started in _high school_?”

Kurt nods slowly. “Yes. First the once, and then the summer.” He knows it’s stupid, but he can’t resist. “Don’t you remember how angry Carole was with Finn, at the end of senior year, Dad?”

“Vaguely,” Burt says. “I remember they were having some problems for a while there, before college.” He frowns. “Are you telling me that was about this?”

“Mmmhmm.” Kurt runs his finger around the top of the bottle. “Never quite understood, but it was somehow all Finn forcing himself on us, or something. Endangering our mature, healthy relationship, maybe.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all, son. I’ll be honest with you, none of this is making a lot of sense to me right now,” Burt says. “You’re saying Carole knew about this and didn’t say anything to me about it at any point over the last fourteen years?”

“She didn’t know about it past that point. Finn… told her what she wanted to hear.”

“And what exactly,” Burt asks, “was it that he thought she wanted to hear?” 

Kurt purses his lips, taking in the stony look on Burt’s face. “That he was acting out. Something like that. That of course it wasn’t going to happen again.” Kurt frowns. “I think he might have implied he was interested in Allison, actually.” He laughs. “That would have been hilarious.”

“But Finn is… I mean, he dated girls. Rachel and Quinn in high school, that Terry or whatever her name was in college, then Rachel again,” Burt says. He looks like he can’t quite decide if he’s angry or just confused. “I always thought he was—you know?”

“Straight? He stopped labelling himself around the same time,” Kurt comments, then takes a long swallow of his beer. “Until he picked a new one. Or asked for a new one.” He snorts a little. “And, as I said. It wasn’t contiguous.”

“Is he gay, Kurt? And is this… it’s a sex thing?” Burt lowers his voice a little on the last few words. 

“Oh, god,” Kurt huffs. “A sex thing. No. It is not a ‘sex thing’. And I don’t know if Finn’s gay. For a while he identified as pansexual. Noah thinks it’s possible he’s actually gay. It doesn’t actually matter to us at this point, though.” Kurt shrugs. 

“I’m just really having a hard time wrapping my head around this, son. This just, it can’t be good for any of you. I don’t see how it can be _fair_ for any of you.”

“We missed him,” Kurt says quietly. “Oh, we were happy enough. As long as we didn’t think about him.” He snorts. “Of course, part of it was well, Rachel. It didn’t take a genius to see what she was doing to him. But. We’re all happier now. I don’t think you can adequately understand how _not fair_ things were before.”

“I just, I feel like we’ve been lied to all this time,” Burt says. “And if it’s like you said, if it’s not just about the sex, why did he marry her?”

“That. That I don’t know. Entirely. I have speculations. We could write a book with our speculations. Poor Syd had to listen to a lot of them. Added a few of her own, actually.” Kurt spins the empty bottle absently. “But you have to remember where he was at the time. How many Rose Bowls did Finn go to, Dad? What number was he in the draft? There was a lot of media attention.” Kurt winces and frowns a little as he remembers. “No one wanted a pansexual Hudson.”

“Why couldn’t he, or you, or any of you, tell us, at least?”

“Yes. ‘Oh, hey, Dad, Carole. By the way, that blind item you all thought was David Karofsky? Actually about Finn! Surprise!’”

“ _Kurt!_ ” Burt looks taken aback. “Are you telling me that… they were talking about _this_?” Burt waves his hand around in a circle to encapsulate the relationship being discussed. 

“Yes.” Kurt nods. “Always thought it was a third-stringer, maybe.”

Burt sets his empty beer down on the island and temples his fingers in front of his face, leaning on the counter. “So you were flying out to Wisconsin—and I assume Finn was flying out here—for _this_?”

“We _did_ watch his games.”

“So the… the _three_ of you. You have some kind of relationship between you. Okay.” Burt takes a deep breath. “I see that. But, what about you and Noah? How does Finn fit into that? How can this possibly be enough for _him_? Did you think about that? You and Noah have each other, but Finn?”

Kurt takes a deep breath and tries to decide how best to word it. “There are three of us. Yes, outwardly, there’s Noah and I, and then Finn, but. We all have each other. Yes, to a large extent, we always left a good portion of the decisions to Finn. When, how long, yes, no. Probably we left too many of the decisions to him, but we didn’t want to be two more people pressuring him.” He sighs. “Of course we talked about how things would appear, especially before we bought this place. We had a few concerns. This… this is what we all want, Dad.”

“Kurt, he’d just come off an ugly divorce after what was obviously an unhappy marriage,” Burt says. “Did you stop to think he just needed a place to feel safe for a while?”

“No, because we’re morons,” Kurt snaps. “Of course we thought about that.”

“Maybe he was confused. He hasn’t exactly always been the best decision maker, and obviously the thing with Rachel was a lot worse than any of us knew.”

Kurt slams his palms down on the counter. “Perhaps that’s because no one’s ever let him make his own decisions without pressuring him. I’m quite certain, though, he wasn’t _confused_.”

“Alright, alright. He wasn’t confused. Nobody’s confused except for me and Carole, I guess,” Burt concedes. “But son, do you _love_ him? Does he love you? Does… there’s _three_ of you, how does that even work? Does Noah feel the same way?”

“Of course we love him.” Kurt scoffs. “And yes, he loves both of us. How does it work? It just does, Dad. There’s not exactly.” He stops and grins. “There’s not exactly a manual.”

“It would be easier if there were,” Burt says, shaking his head. “Then we could all be on the same page.”

“Noah’s Googled. Several times,” Kurt deadpans. “Maybe we’ll have to write it.”

“Anonymously, I assume?”

“Oh, by the time we’re sixty, I don’t think we’d care,” Kurt says flippantly. “Who has time to write it now?”

“I’m glad you can make jokes about this. I’m just worried about how this is all gonna play out in the long term, Kurt.”

“I’m not allowed at parent/teacher conferences, for starters. Or maybe I’m just held in reserve.”

Burt shakes his head and allows himself a small smile. “So you’re really raising the three of them as the three of you? That why Charlie was calling you Daddy earlier? I thought she’d just picked up the habit from Harvey.”

“Initially? Yes. Harvey was already eighteen months and she was just turning one. But no, we didn’t discourage it, obviously.” He shrugs slightly. “Finn’s much better at placating the teachers. He and Noah say I have a, hmm. Unfortunate tendency to take any suggestions for improvement as a personal affront.”

“You? Never,” Burt says, laughing. “Kurt, I really don’t know what to say about all of this. I want you to be happy. I want Finn to be happy. I especially want the _children_ to be happy and taken care of.” He sighs deeply and shakes his head. “Is this gonna do that? For all of you?”

“I’m happy, yes. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but Finn certainly seems happier than he has in years. The kids? Eliza has had a hard time. I mean, her mother essentially abandoned her. But I do think they’re happy. The Peas especially.”

Burt sighs. “I don’t think Carole’s gonna handle this well, Kurt, to be honest with you. She was pretty freaked out earlier, and if it’s like you said, and this was the reason she and Finn had those problems back in senior year…”

“No, probably not,” Kurt agrees, and he has to stifle the urge to laugh, because of course Carole’s going to have a fit. They’ve known that for years. “I’d prefer it if she would refrain from addressing the issue in front of the kids, though.”

“Does Rachel know about this?” Burt asks, almost pointedly not responding to Kurt’s request.

Kurt sighs. “As far as we know? No. But she always was a little obtuse. Syd knows of course, Zachary knows, Lillian—you remember Lillian—she knows, Tori, Allison…” Kurt trails off. “The people we invite to Thanksgiving. They all know.”

“Aren’t you worried about what she’s gonna do when she finds out? I mean, I know Finn’s got full custody, but she can always go back and fight it,” Burt says.

“Not really,” Kurt admits. “She said far too many things during the divorce. And we have Syd _and_ Tina.”

“I just want you kids to all be happy and safe. That’s all any parent wants.”

“Yes,” Kurt agrees, looking amused. “I have somewhere between three and five of them, depending on how you do the math.”

“I guess you do know, then,” Burt says. “Well, I’d better go have a little chat with Carole, before her head explodes. I can’t make any promises about her reaction. She was about to fly off the handle earlier, after she saw Finn kiss Noah.”

“I can imagine, sadly.” Kurt straightens. “And I should probably head upstairs. Calm down my boys.”

Burt looks a bit taken aback by Kurt’s statement, but all he says is, “Talk about your blended family, I guess.”

Kurt grins. “Exactly. Good night, Dad.”

“Good night, son.”


End file.
